


Safe & Sound

by Trickster_Angel



Series: Innocence [1]
Category: Welcome to Night Vale
Genre: Angst, Bittersweet Ending, M/M, Re-Education
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-10-26
Updated: 2013-10-26
Packaged: 2017-12-30 13:32:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,143
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1019219
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Trickster_Angel/pseuds/Trickster_Angel
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>If you were going to forget everything, what is important enough to remember? What won't you let go of?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Safe & Sound

**Author's Note:**

> Dedicated to Fanfic Anon

It starts with a letter. Not particularly unusual except for its blood red color. It may have even been dyed in blood; Cecil can’t be certain. In Night Vale, no one ever can be. His full name is written in black ink. No return address. The sender left no information as to who they were. One could guess but he chooses not to.

On the back was the seal of their vague (yet menacing) government. Once torn open, on heavy paper, is the message Cecil figures he’d received but hoped against.

_Mr. Palmer,_

_Please report to City Hall tomorrow at 9:00 a.m. for re-education._

Re-education. He’s heard that before but he doesn’t know how many times. Maybe hundreds. Or maybe he said it in some mundane conversion that in no way applied to him. Only now it did.

“Hello? Cecil?”

He didn’t remember taking out his phone, dialing the number, or waiting for his scientist to pick up. But he felt instant relief from hearing his voice.

“I need to talk to you.”

“What’s wrong?” He can hear the concern in Carlos’ voice clearly. Cecil is pretty sure he sounds normal but he can’t tell. Is he shaking? “Cecil what’s wrong?”

“I just need to see you.”

“I’ll be right there.” The line disconnected.

Carlos arrives in fourteen minutes and fifty-two seconds; Cecil has stared at the clock the entire time, waiting for him.  A familiar knock comes at the door and he throws it open, comforted by the fact that his boyfriend is here.

“Cecil you’re shaking,” Carlos says by way of a greeting, immediately taking his boyfriend in his arms. “What’s wrong?”

“I have to report to City Hall for re-education tomorrow,” Cecil replies in the most monotone voice he can manage.

Carlos doesn’t respond for a while, which doesn’t surprise Cecil. He has only been in Night Vale for a little over a year after all. He doesn’t understand this. As a visitor, it is a fate he will unlikely have to face.

“Why?” he finally asks, breaking the silence between them.

Cecil waits a beat before saying, “I don’t know. They didn’t say.” Carlos lets go and both men walk inside Cecil’s apartment. It’s a messier than he’d normally like it to be, especially in front of Carlos but Cecil can’t be bothered to care. Not now.

“Has this happened before?” Carlos asks as they sit down on the couch together. Cecil wonders why he’s asking questions, but realizes that it’s the scientist in him; the part of him that wants to get all the facts straight before reaching a conclusion.

“I don’t know,” he repeats, “I think so but I don’t remember.” Carlos nods and Cecil can imagine him scratching notes on paper, as if he were a therapist.  Vaguely, he remembers one of his shows and talking about the … something … he doesn’t remember what, and then the note saying that he was to be re-educated.

“Memory loss,” Carlos mutters.

Slowly, Cecil adds, “I think it’s because of us.” Carlos looks at the Voice of Night Vale and says, “Why? We haven’t done anything wrong. I’ve read all the rules and we haven’t broken any.”

“I think it’s just because we’re together,” Cecil replies and Carlos doesn’t seem to have the words to disagree. They are quite a pair, Night Vale’s favorite outsider and the Voice of Night Vale himself. How much time has Cecil wasted, from the perspective of the City Council and Station Management, on the radio show talking about his crush on Carlos? He remembers how loud Station Management had screeched when he talked about their date on air. He isn’t sure of a lot but he is pretty sure of this: they are after him because of Carlos. They want to take away the most important person in his life.

“Then don’t go. Don’t be re-educated.”

“Then they’ll either kill me or forcibly take me to be re-educated.”

“Why don’t we run? We can leave Night Vale.”

“The Sheriff’s Secret Police will find us. They’re probably watching now,” Cecil says in a monotone voice looking around for one of the trained spiders. He doesn’t see any.

“Then what should we do?” Carlos asks but then says, “I’ll be right back,” as he gets up. Cecil almost grabs his hand but trusts him to come back. He follows him to the door and watches him get something from his car. Carlos looks both ways before he hurries back and closes the door quickly behind him. In his hand is a sheet of paper and an illegal pen.

“How do you have one of those?” Cecil asks, pointing to the pen.

“I need it to do my work,” Carlos replies and walks back to the couch. Cecil follows him.

Laying out the paper and pen, Carlos says, “Write down everything you want to remember. When you go to be re-educated, I’ll hold onto this and then I’ll give it back to you.” Cecil looks at Carlos and slowly nods.  Immediately, he starts to write.

One hour and two sheets of paper later, he finishes and scans over his work. It’s everything he needs to know.  He hands the papers back to Carlos who doesn’t look at them.

He kisses him and his mouth tastes salty. He isn’t sure why.

“I’ll keep these safe,” Carlos promises once the kiss breaks and Cecil thinks that he’s the luckiest man in the world. He has Carlos, wonderful, perfect, Carlos, who won’t give up on him. Carlos gets up and involuntarily, Cecil grabs his shirt.

“Please stay,” he says quietly and Carlos sits back down and puts his arms around him.

“I’ll never leave.”

***

For a while, the only sound Cecil can hear is his own screaming.

***

“Good night, Night Vale, good night.” The lights of the booth switch off and Cecil takes off his headset. Station Management seems to be appeased, at least for today. The intern already has his coat on and is nearly out the door. All in all, a normal day. After saying good night to Khoshekh, Cecil heads home too. He still has a fierce headache that hasn’t gone away since the morning.

In his mailbox he finds several bills and a white envelope. It only has his name on it, no address and no sender. Curious, he brings it inside and opens it. Inside is a nearly blank sheet of paper with only a few words scribbled on it.

_Meet me at the Arby’s._

Cecil wonders who would leave him such a note and who had a pen to write it. If the Secret Police finds out … he doesn’t want to finish the thought. But he’s intrigued and immediately goes. 

It’s dark when he arrives and the lights above the Arby’s shine brightly, illuminating a man trying his best to stand in the shadows. Cecil doesn’t recognize him, which is odd because he recognizes everyone.  The closer he gets, the worse the stranger looks. Not as in unattractive, on the contrary, he is very attractive with beautiful long hair.  But he also has a split lip, black eye and bruising on his hands. Cecil can see him favoring one leg. Cecil guesses that he has other injuries that he can’t see.

“Hello Cecil,” the stranger says and Cecil is enthralled. The way the stranger says his name, he just wants to hear it over and over again. Why is his heart beating so fast?

“I’m sorry,” Cecil says slowly, “Do I know you?” The man’s face falls and Cecil is instantly ashamed. He doesn’t want to hurt him.

“My name is Carlos,” the stranger tells him and Cecil feels as if he should have known that. He doesn’t know why but it seems very familiar, even though he’s neither met anyone with that name nor has he met this man before.

“I have something for you,” Carlos continues and hands him an envelope, the same kind that had sealed the mysterious note.

“What is this?”

“Just read it.”

The letter is written on several pieces of notebook paper stapled together. It reads:

_Cecil,_

_You love him. You’ve loved him since the first moment you saw him. His name is Carlos and he’ll be delivering this to you._

Cecil looks up at Carlos and believes. He believes because his heart is beating furiously inside his chest and he loves it. He loves the feelings he gets when he looks at the beautiful stranger.

_You were taken to be re-educated so I don’t know what you remember. I don’t remember anything about re-education so I’ll tell you everything._

_It started when he first entered town._

The letter goes on to explain every detail of their first encounter, the first time Carlos called, their numerous dates and what some of Carlos’ faults are, but the writer compliments him excessively. These descriptions are several pages long and Carlos waits patiently while Cecil reads.

_That’s everything. That is all I can’t bear to forget. I love Carlos and he knows. He reciprocates my feelings. So keep this and never forget._

_Cecil Gershwin Palmer_

Cecil looks at the signature twice before he tries to grasp what he read. That is his full name, which he rarely uses. Few people know him well enough to know his middle name. Even fewer would know how to perfectly forge the signature. He wrote the letter but he has no memory of doing so.

“I was re-educated?” he asks slowly, as if he can’t believe that he’d ever forget this beautiful man. Carlos nods and explains, “You thought they’d try to make you forget us. And you were right. So you wrote that letter so you could remember.”

“Don’t the Secret Police know about this?”

“They do. They tried to take it. They took all evidence that we were together.  Thankfully, the faceless old woman who secretly lives in my home hid it so they didn’t find it.” He smiles and Cecil feels sad. They probably tried to force him to give up the letter and he couldn’t. So they hurt him. A protective urge strikes him; how dare they hurt Carlos.

“As soon as they see us together, I’ll just go back,” Cecil says, defeated. How can he and Carlos be together if the vague (yet menacing) government wanted him to forget?

“Let’s leave Night Vale.”

Cecil is shocked. Leave Night Vale? He is the Voice of Night Vale; he _is_ Night Vale. How can Carlos talk of leaving like it’s nothing? “Let’s leave right now. We can start a life together somewhere else and we’ll never need to worry about re-education again.”

“They’d find us,” Cecil replies.

“Then we’ll run. If they find us then we’ll both be re-educated so we have nothing to lose. I’ll take all the time I can get with you.” Carlos stops, staring at the ground near Cecil’s right foot. The he walks forward and pulls Cecil into his arms. Cecil may have forgotten the man, but he can’t ignore the happiness he feels when Carlos hugs him. “I can’t lose you again. This is hard enough.” He can’t find it in himself to distrust Carlos. Cecil lives life openly; he wears his emotions on his sleeve and he doesn’t know if Carlos does that too but that doesn’t matter because right now, he’s being so open and honest that Cecil believes him.

Cecil breaks the hug so he can pull Carlos in for a kiss. Carlos immediately kisses back and Cecil’s heart is beating so quickly, he’s afraid it will beat right out of his chest.  He may have forgotten but some part of him remembers loving Carlos.

“Let’s leave.”

***

He sits beside a man he absolutely trusts in a Hybrid Coupe. Night Vale is so far away now, just a speck in the distance. He can hear the sound of helicopters flying overhead but that’s usual for this time of night. He isn’t scared. Like Carlos said, they have nothing to lose. Not anymore.

Carlos seems tense but that’s not unreasonable. His perfect teeth are gritted together and he grips the steering wheel like a lifeline.

“It’s almost gone,” Cecil says and Carlos nods. He’s so focused on escaping, Cecil wonders if he even heard him. Is this what Carlos is like? He doesn’t know. But he figures that if he fell in love once, then he’ll do it again. Maybe he already has. Just thinking of Carlos makes his heart flutter and he’s so happy to be sitting right next to him. Even at the cost of Night Vale, Cecil is happy.

He turns around and he can’t see the town anymore. They aren’t safe, they may never be safe, but this is a turning point. They’re going to start over, together, and Cecil is happy.

“Good bye, Night Vale. Good bye.”

**Author's Note:**

> Title from Safe & Sound by Taylor Swift ft. Civil Wars


End file.
